During the summer, families often flock to their local butcher to select choice cuts of meat for grilling, potlucks and barbeques. However, many grocery stores and supermarkets today have foregone the classic in-house butcher that cuts and wraps fresh meat personally for their customers. Instead, meat products are typically packaged miles-away by meat processors in case-ready packages and shipped to the grocery stores and supermarkets. Centralized packaging has grown in popularity because of its significant cost savings to retailers and enhanced quality control. In particular, centralized packaging reduces the chances of cross-contamination as the product leaves a federally inspected plant in a sealed package and isn't opened until the consumer takes the product home. Case-ready meats also offer retailers an improved ability to keep meat products consistently in-stock for their customers. Centralized packaging thus requires less labor, equipment and valuable overhead for retailers. However, problems arise during long shipping periods as meat decays as soon as it is butchered. When deprived of oxygen meat turns a purplish color, wherein overexposure turns meat brown. Although the meat product may remain fresh and edible, discoloration can be unappealing to consumers. Indeed, consumers regard bright red meat as fresh and will often make purchasing decisions based on appearance alone.
Current meat packaging systems often rely upon lid-stock packages with modified atmospheres to maintain the fresh appearance of meat, inhibit odors and improve shelf life. Lid-stock packages utilize a plastic container with a deep cavity for holding the meat product. An elastomeric sealing film comprised of cellophane, PVC, polyethylene or other plastic materials/blends that may be heat-sealed over the container, wherein the sealing film is transparent to allow the consumer to view the meat product inside. Prior to securing the sealing film to the container, the air is generally evacuated from the package using a vacuum chamber. The evacuated package is then back-flushed with a combination of gases before securing the sealing film to the container. The combination of gases typically comprise high-oxygen or low-oxygen modified atmospheres.
High-oxygen modified atmospheres typically range between 20-40% carbon dioxide and 60-80% oxygen. High amounts of oxygen give the meat product an appealing bright-red color, while the addition of moderate amounts of carbon dioxide reduces the growth of aerobic spoilage microorganisms. Even with moderate amounts of carbon dioxide, shelf life is limited to approximately 5-15 days. Thus, the use of high-oxygen modified atmosphere packages is best suited for meat product held for short periods of time. On the other hand, low-oxygen modified atmosphere packages are aimed at meat product that must be transported long distances or stored for several weeks. Low-oxygen modified atmospheres may utilize low amounts of oxygen along with a mixture of other gases including carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and nitrogen. However, without the presence of oxygen the meat turns a purplish color that is undesirable to consumers. For this reason meat is often packaged, shipped and stored in low-oxygen modified atmosphere to extend shelf-life, and then displayed to customers in a high-oxygen environment to create an appealing bright-red bloom in the meat.
The problem with both high-oxygen and low-oxygen modified atmospheres are that they require a significantly large package with a high-volume headspace between the meat product and the sealing film. In particular, the gas volume of the headspace should be at least as great as the volume of the meat product inside the package. The high-volume headspace is necessary to provide room for the gasses that keep the meat fresh during shipping, storage and retail display. At lower headspace volumes the meat will develop an unattractive color and odor within fifteen days or less in high oxygen modified atmospheres. Unfortunately, these larger packages raise shipping, storage and refrigeration costs for both producers and retailers. High-volume headspaces also allow meat to slip inside the modified atmosphere packages which damages the meat product, smears the transparent sealing film to reduce visibility, and harms the overall appearance of the package to consumers. Moreover, savvy consumers recognize that meat products contained in packages with high-volume headspaces may have been cut miles away at a centralized packaging facility, instead of being freshly cut by an in-house butcher at the grocery store. Thus, modified atmosphere packaging with high-volume headspace may be unappealing to some consumers.
Thus, a desire remains to develop a modified atmosphere meat packaging system and method of packaging meat product that appears freshly cut and wrapped straight from the butcher at a local meat market. A desire also remains to develop a modified atmosphere meat packaging system and method of packaging meat product that reduces high-volume headspace currently required in present meat packaging systems. A further desire remains to develop a modified atmosphere meat packaging system and method of packaging meat product that is designed to prevent the meat product from slipping inside of the package to maintain its attractive appearance.